The widespread use of the Internet has brought forth a number of generic electronic document management solutions, particularly as applied to the World Wide Web (hereinafter “Web”).
For example, the DocuTouch website (found at www.docutouch.com) appears to advertise a service with collaboration, authentication, repository, and digital signatures functionality.
In another example, the NetDocuments website (found at www.netdocuments.com) appears to advertise a service designed for document storage, collaboration, and management.
In another example, the DocuLogic website (found at www.doculogic.com) appears to advertise a service with document imaging, storage, and access functionality.
In another example, the Cimage website (found at www.cimage.com) appears to advertise a “Document Manager” portfolio consisting of a range of client, server, and Internet-based products for creating document management systems.
In another example, the FilesOnTheNet.com website (found at www.filesonthenet.com) appears to advertise an Internet-based document management service with scanning, indexing, sending, and viewing functionality.
Nevertheless, such conventional electronic document management solutions generally fail to provide a mechanism for permitting a “single sign-on” process across at least two websites owned by different organizations. Furthermore, such conventional electronic document management solutions generally fail to implement a “security context” mechanism which ensures that only “slices” of information are available to a user signing-in from a given external website.